Three friends try to turn their passion into a business, but external factors play a hand in throwing their ambition off course.

Summary Of The Book

Govind is a bright young man with an ambition to break the fetters of his modest, middle class life. He has two friends, Ishan and Omi. Together, they decide to open a cricket shop at a temple premise.

Ishan is passionate about cricket and wants to nurture promising young talent. Omi is the son of the local temple priest. Govind, Omi and Ishan are all obsessed by cricket and decide that they should combine business with pleasure and start a cricket shop at the temple premises.

Govind looks after the business end of things, Ishan takes care of the daily activities at the shop, and Omi helps the friends set up the shop in the temple’s commercial area, as his family has some influence in the temple trust.

Govind, meanwhile, falls in love with Vidya, Ishan’s younger sister, when he starts coaching her in maths for her medical entrance exams. They begin to have a relationship, unknown to Ishan. Omi discovers their secret and warns Govind that it would badly affect his friendship with Ishan if he found out about it.

Ishan himself is consumed by a desire to tutor and help Ali, a young Muslim cricketer, get selected into the national team.

In the middle of all this, the Godhra train incident happens, followed by the riots in Gujarat. This upsets the three friends’ dreams in many ways, not least by putting the Hindus and Muslims in confrontation with each other.

About Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author.

Other books by Chetan Bhagat are, One Night @ the Call Center, Five Point Someone, and 2 States: The Story of My Marriage.

His books focus on the contemporary life of Indian youth in the backdrop of India’s changing social and economic scenario.

Chetan Bhagat was born in 1974 in New Delhi. He completed his engineering degree studies at IIT, Delhi. He later did his MBA at IIM. Thus, he studied at both the premier technology and management schools of India. While at IIM, Ahmedabad, he met Anusha Suryanarayan, whom he married in 1999. He worked in Hong Kong as an investment banker for 11 years before moving back to Mumbai as he took up writing full time.